I read beforehand on the wiki that Mordin will die unless you send him back with the crew so I did so and everybody lived.
Well I plan to reload the mission so I can get the achievement where everyone lives but I am going to take over my first attempt only into Mass Effect 3 so no Mordin in ME3. I am going to finish off my Renegade female character in ME1 with different universe choices to what I already did so I can play as her in Mass Effect 2.
I don't know, Mordin lived fine in my game. People are suggesting it's a bug or there's some obtuse condition somewhere else in the game.
Looks like Bioware tried to explain the Mordin dying bit. http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/105/index/1117936/2#1121084 Still not crystal clear, but it apparently depends on who else was left to hold the line and whether they were loyal.
That's odd though. I wasn't given a choice as to who held the line. It was just everyone that wasn't in my final party. Though I had already sent Mordin back as the escort, so he survived anyway.
That actually makes no sense... since you have no control on who gets left behind to "hold the line". Unless they want you to take the weakest characters with you into the final boss battle, which makes no sense either (If anything, the "weaker" characters would be killed against the boss). Then again, I had absolutely no problems with my playthrough so who knows.
My choices and the results: Vent shaft: Sent a non-loyal Thane, he dies. Second Fire Team leader: Loyal Garrus, he lives. Biotic Shielder: Loyal Miranda, she lives. However, Grunt was taken by the sleeper swarms. Mordin survives. Second Fire Team leader: Loyal Samara, she dies. Crew Escort: Loyal Legion, he lives. Final Fight pair: Loyal Garrus and Tali, both live. Hold the Line: Non-loyal Zaeed dies. My only 2 non-loyal party members died, so that seems to really affect things.
Re did it and sent Mordin back with crew and he survived so got achievement but like I said earlier will transfer first file over to ME 3. I didn't blow up the station on my 1st playthrough and now am worried about the Illusive Man, I hope Bioware give me the choice to kick his ass in the 3rd one should he use it for any agenda other than kicking Reaper butt. Personally if I beat the Reapers in number 3 then I want it blown up no matter the cost.
I got Mordin to survive holding the line despite losing Miranda's loyalty, sending Grunt to escort the crew, and having Garrus lead the second fire team. I believe I took Tali and Samara with me to face the final boss, so that might have had something to do with it. A bit off-topic, but has anyone noticed that New Game+ seems to screw you over when it comes to getting paragon and renegade points? It seems like I'm getting half the points I got when I first played through with that character.
If you transferred a character from ME1, you got a big chunk to start with; you lose all of those if you do New Game +.
For myself, I had everyone loyal (Overall paragon with renegade tendencies towards anyone hostile) Legion did the vents. Miranda was team lead both times. Samara, the biotic, Tali as the escort with Zaeed and Garrus as my squad and that seems to have worked (At least this time). My second character is going to be far more renegade. In some ways, it's a lot more fun. Tali seems to be making more exasperated comments on this run
Er, you have complete control over who gets left to hold the line because who is left is based on decisions you have already made. If you chose poorly earlier on, then people who you'd need to have everyone survive may be gone... and that is a consequence of your own actions. It's not random. Further, they're not talking about characters being "weaker", but not performing as great in a defensive situation, which is pretty different from an offensive one.
That's one thing that doesn't seem to match up with ME1. My renegade bitchy femShep didn't get along with Tali in the first game and Tali got so upset with how Sheppard was treating her that she announced she'd be leaving the ship once the mission was over. Not only was there no mention of this after transferring over the save file, but Tali talked about Sheppard with reverence for most of the game. Eventually I pissed her off by revealing to the Quarian court that Tali's father was responsible for activating the Geth on that ship, now she refuses to talk to me. I'm about to do the suicide mission and Tali is the only character not loyal to my femShep, so I think Tali might be about to experience a nasty accident.
I'm trying to hit level 30 in one playthrough with the +25% XP bonus. Going to be close, but I am going through all of the minor missions before going to the IFF.
Spoilers, but a bit of a sequence break - characters from the second half of the game can appear in the first half of the game with a save editor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaJ50l70Tzs Also, a FemShep/Tali relationship was recorded: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtVNqxjiH0Y#t=7m40s
I finished the game again tonight as my renegade Shep and I have to say that the suicide mission is much more epic if you intentionally make poor calls and allow squad members to die. I went into the mission with all squad members loyal except Tali and I bought the weapon and shield upgrade but not the armour. Jack died during the space battle and I took Thane with me to fight the oculus in cargo deck because I wanted to make sure he survived (as he was the one character die in my first play-through). I sent Tali through the vent with Zaeed leading the second team, and I took Grunt and Thane on my team. Tali took one to the head, that will teach her to question me. I managed to rescue the crew and I sent Thane to escort them back to the ship to ensure his survival. I selected Miranda as my biotic shield, Grunt and Jacob on my team while Zaeed led the second strike again. Grunt was captured by the seeker swarms just as we reached the door and Zaeed was shot in the chest and died. (Strange that, since his armour is much thicker than Miranda's catsuit and she managed to survive the same shot.) I took Garrus and Morinth (I chose her over Samara) to take on the final boss, because I like Garrus and wanted to ensure his survival, and I wanted to ensure Morinth survived so I could see her kill Shepard after the mission. That meant that there wasn't a strong enough team to hold the line and Mordin died, but the other three survived. I can't see Bioware putting in the effort of including any of these characters on your team in ME3, they'll probably start completely from scratch again, which is upsetting but understandable. I'll try and get the achievement for the team surviving the suicide mission in the future, but I feel that letting 5 or 6 die makes for a much more epic, and satisfying, conclusion to the game. It almost makes me forgive the giant Terminator.
I agree that having a couple teammates die actually does make the whole thing seem more dramatic/cinematic. Jacob got nailed trying to close the doors, but I decided I was too Paragon to let anyone die, so I reloaded before I got any farther. I think on my Renegade playthrough, I'm going to intentionally sabotage the team to see how many will survive.
Holy shit, what did they do to Shepard's face?! Looks like they recorded all the dialog for Tali/FemShep. Too bad they didn't put it in.